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Seizure of children by the state: 2008-APR

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About the Yearning for Zion ranch:

Most of the FLDS' members are located
in the twin cities of Colorado City, AZ and Hildale, UT. A separate colony of about 1,000
members live in Bountiful, British Columbia,
Canada. In 2004-MAY, the FLDS announced that a new church location would be
established in Schleiser County, TX, about four miles northeast of Eldorado.
Here, the FLDS constructed the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) ranch on nearly
1,700 acres of land. It currently has 35 structures: 14 log buildings, four large metal
buildings, and a large stone temple.

Concern about the FLDS and their alleged practice of marrying middle aged men
to young girls motivated Texas lawmakers to pass a law in 2005 that increased the
minimum age for marriage from 14 to 16 years.
1

Seizure of FLDS children at the YFZ ranch near Eldorado, TX:

2008-APR-03: An anonymous 16-year-old FLDS girl phoned an abuse
hotline repeated times. She said that her name was Sarah, that she is a mother of an eight-month-old
baby, and that she was pregnant for the second time. She said that she had been sexually and
physically abused by her year old husband. Various sources give his age as
49 and 50. Acting on
the complaint, the police raided the temple of the FLDS' YFZ ranch. By APR-05, 183 people had been
removed from the ranch, including about 97 girls and 40 boys. Darrell Azar,
spokesperson for state Child Protective Services said that 18 girls,
who the state believes "had been abused or were at immediate risk of future
abuse," were taken into state custody.

APR-06: The LDS Church in Salt Lake City issued a news
release concerning polygamy:

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reiterated Sunday that it
has no affiliation whatever with a polygamous sect in
Texas that has been subject to investigation by state law enforcement
officers and child protective services. The Church discontinued polygamy
officially in 1890, but more than a century later some news and Internet
reports fail to draw clear distinctions between the Church and practicing
polygamous sects." 2

The LDS Church regards themselves as the only
legitimate Mormon church; it does not refer to the FLDS as a Mormon faith group.

By APR-06, 60 adults and 159 children had been
removed from the ranch. An arrest warrant had been issued for Dale Evans
Barlow, 50, who authorities believe had fathered a child with his 16-year-old
wife. 3

APR-15: The number of children removed had increased to 416.

APR-17: Testimony began at Tom Green County Court. According to
the Nancy Grace Weekend program on 2008-APR-26, the mothers
outnumbered the fathers in court by a ratio of about 50 to 1. The
prosecution attempted to prove the existence of under-age marriages and
births to teenage mothers. Some state witnesses said that religious factors
were irrelevant to the case; they attributed the unusual family structures
to the FLDS culture and community. This might be an attempt to discount any
future claim by the FLDS that guarantees of freedom of religion in the U.S.
Constitution protect their family living arrangements.

APR-18: Some parents testified that the details of
their religion is crucial to anyone attempting understand their culture. One
of their witnesses was William John Walsh, described as a theological
expert. He explained that the FLDS did not teach that under-age girls should
marry older men. It is the prophet who decide if and when a couple w ould marry.

Another witness, Merylin Jeffs, 29, is a FLDS member and the mother of a
seven-year-old daughter. She said that she would not allow her daughter to
marry before age 18, "... no matter the consequences."

Angie Voss, an
investigator with the State Division of Child Protective Services, said:
"There is a culture of young girls being pregnant by old men," She found evidence that
"... more than 20 girls, some of whom are now adults, have conceived or
given birth under the age of 16 or 17."

Judge Barbara Walther ruled that
all 416 children, who ranged in age from infants to 17-year-old teenagers, would be held in protective custody until the state could
determine whether the children were abused, or were at risk for future abuse,
if they stayed in the FLDS community.
She ordered DNA testing to determine the mother and father of each
child. She also ordered that the adults be fingerprinted.

Lawyers for the families
accused the state of being biased against the FLDS community. They said that
there is no conclusive proof that older men in the community had engaged in
sexual behavior with girls as young as 15 years-of-age. Rod Parker, a lawyer
and spokesman for the church, said that the Texas Division of Child
Protective Services is now "... on trial for their high-handed and
precipitous tactics in removing these children. ... C.P.S. is trying to put
the church on trial." 4

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
issued a statement stating that the YFZ situation has raised "... serious
and difficult issues regarding the sometimes competing rights of children
and their parents."

The statement was issued after ACLU representatives heard part of the
testimony but before the judge issued her order.

Terri Burke, the ACLU’s executive director, said in the statement: "While we
acknowledge that Judge Walthers’ task may be unprecedented in Texas judicial
history, we question whether the current proceedings adequately protect the
fundamental rights of the mothers and children of the FLDS." 10

Although there are many
conservative Christian legal defense organizations in the U.S., by APR-28,
we have been unable to find any indication that any of them have become
involved in the case.

APR-21:
Connor Boyack, from Utah, organized a petition to protest the removal of
children from the YFZ ranch. When the initial goal of 1,000 signatures was
reached, it was sent to the Texas state government. By APR-28, 2,256
signatures had been obtained. The petition reads:

"We, the undersigned, urge Texan
authorities to free the innocent women, children, and other members of
the Fundamentalist LDS Church who are currently being detained. We
demand that the Constitutional rights of the innocent be preserved, and
that due process be served. As individuals are innocent until proven
guilty, we call upon the Texas Governor to intervene in this matter and
allow the women and children to return to their homes peacefully. We
also demand an apology, most especially from the Texas CPS, for the
heinous acts of aggression displayed in these recent events."

The petition is available online. 9,10

APR-22: Considerable attention has been paid to the pioneer style
clothing worn by women at the YFZ ranch. Carolyn Jessop, the author of the
best-selling book "Escape" who successfully left the FLDS in 2003, wrote
that that members believe the armies of God will judge women according to
their clothing at the time of their death. It will be the deciding factor
between a righteous and evil woman. She explained that women are expected to
wear four to five under-layers of clothing in spite of the very hot summers
in Arizona, Utah and Texas. 12

APR-23: The raid on the YFZ ranch was
triggered by a series of phone callsto an abuse hotline. One of the
calls allegedly came from a phone number that Rozita Swinson, 33, of
Colorado Springs, CO had used in the past. In 2005, she pleaded guilty to
misdemeanor false reporting in a Castle Rock, CO case. She was given
a one-year deferred sentence. She was also
arrested on APR-16 on another misdemeanor false reporting case that
allegedly occurred in Colorado Springs during 2008-FEB . An new arrest
warrant has been issued against her because of suspected involvement in the
FLDS Texas case. The Associated Press reported that: "Texas officials and lawyers have said that even if the call
that prompted the raid turned out to be a hoax it would not affect their
custody case because the state acted in good faith." 7

APR-24: The mothers and children had
been stored at the San Angelo Coliseum pending the outcome of the mothers'
legal attempts at the Texas’ 3rd Court of Appeals
to be allowed to stay with their children. They lost their appeal. Texas
officials split up the families by bussing many of the mothers from the
Coliseum; seven returned to the YFZ ranch; 40 were taken to a "save
location." One woman held a sign out of the bus window that said:
"SOS. Mothers separated. Help." Meanwhile, more
than 400 children were distributed among group homes, shelters and
residences -- some hundreds of miles away.

"Velvet," a mother who
was forced to leave her 13-month old, said: "There are no words to describe
how it was. We’ve been staying up nights to watch over the children because
we didn’t know what would happen."

About a hundred protestors in Salt Lake City, UT protested at the
EnergySolutions Arena in support of the FLDS. They had signs that read:
"Free the Children" and "Got Constitution?" Some chanted "Shame on Texas;
free those kids!" 5

APR-25: The total number of children taken from the YFZ Ranch
grew to 467. They have all been sent to 16 foster-care facilities in
Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, Corpus Christi, Ft. Worth, Houston, Midland, San
Antonio, Waco, and Waxahachie, TX. 6

APR-27: The situation is somewhat chaotic because:

There are so many children involved.

Many of the children and their mothers have been giving false and
multiple names to authorities.

Almost all of the fathers are nowhere to be seen.

The authorities are convinced that very serious levels of abuse have
existed within the FLDS and that many of its children are now in need of
protection. Meanwhile, Willie Jessop, an FLDS member who has helped church
members publicize their situation, has sent a letter to Texas Governor Rick
Perry that accuses state child welfare officials of "... some of the most
horrific violations of human rights that have ever been allowed on American
soil." He asked the governor to "... stop this injustice and abuse" of the
innocent FLDS children that resulted from them having been separated their
mothers. His letter further states:

"The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services have
demonstrated, in a most blatant way, their inability to properly
care for, or even account for our children."

"Many have been left in critical medical conditions, resulting in
permanent mental damage through threats, intimidation and ultimately
separating them from their parents, disregarding their own
psychological expert advice to keep children with at least their
mother."

Deseret News reported that:

"Jessop accused Texas officials of 'false allegations about the
finding of abuse against teenage girls' and accused some Child
Protective Services employees of 'inhumane tactics and threats
towards innocent mothers and children'."

"While not responding directly to the letter, DFPS spokesman
Chris Van Deusen and others have repeatedly and strongly denied
allegations made by several FLDS mothers that CPS workers threatened
to never allow them to see their children again if they didn't
cooperate or if the women returned to their homes at the YFZ Ranch."

" 'Those [allegations[ are absolutely false. No one from CPS
would say that,' Van Deusen said."

The mothers appear to be unable to tap into the phenomenal wealth of
the FLDS. Many are relying on legal aid for representation. Texas
RioGrande Legal Aid represents 48 of the FLDS mothers. The agency's
communications director, Cynthia Martinez, states that she knows where
two of the boys were supposed to have been relocated, but cannot
immediately confirm that they are at that location. 6

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APR-27: Various groups hold differing opinions on
whether the removal of over 400 children was a desirable response to
allegations of abuse in the YFK ranch and the rest of the FLDS
community:

Robert Doggett, a lawyer for some of the
FLDS mothers believes that many of the children are too young to
have be indoctrinated to believe in plural marriages between girls
and older men.

Other lawyers for the mothers believe that
the state went too far in seizing all of the children.

There is little response from the fathers
of the children involved; almost all have disappeared.

Some child advocates, family-law experts,
and Judge Barbara Walther, the main
Texas judge involved in the case, feel that the YFK ranch was unsafe
for children because they were being groomed to become either
victims or abusers.

Former state District Judge Scott McCown
suggested that if any children were left behind at the ranch, they
might have been moved out of the state. This would have placed them
at risk and delayed the investigation. 8

MAY-08: Forty-eight FLDS mothers have filed a lawsuit in an
effort to have their children returned. Their lawyers said that Texas Child Protective Services
(CPS) did not have enough evidence to "justify the mass separation of every
single child [from his or her mother] To distract attention from this
inconvenient fact [the agency focused] on the mothers' purported beliefs, rather
than on their actions or omissions."

CPS officials issued a news release defending their
decision to remove hundreds of children from the YFZ ranch. They stated that the
FLDS' communal living situation
required the removal of all the children in the face of evidence of
sexual abuse. The mothers' "conspiracy of silence" left the court with no
option but to cancel individual hearings and hold a single mass hearing. CPS
lawyers wrote that the mothers, "... by throwing up a wall of deception and
engaging in a conspiracy of silence, waived their rights to individual hearings.
... The investigation revealed that the children appeared to have a pervasive
belief that when the prophet, Uncle Merrill, decided for them to be married,
they would be married, ... No age was too young to be spiritually married, and
the young girls wanted to have as many babies as they could."

Investigations supervisor Angie Voss determined that "Since the occupants of the ranch consider themselves as living in
one large home or community", the agency had concerns for all the children there.
Agency lawyers wrote: "How could the Department have identified the alleged perpetrator or
perpetrators when the evidence demonstrated that the entire male and
female population at the Ranch had been enculturated into the belief that
under-age marriage was sacrosanct?" 11

References:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.